The all female focused accelerator programme launched by F-Lane has selected three African startups to be among the nine firms picked to participate in the F-LANE accelerator programme, which connects startups led by and benefitting women with funding and mentorship. Funded by the Vodafone Institute for Society and Communications and run by Yunus Social Business, the F-LANE acceleration programme aims to sharpen business and impact models, and get startups ready for investment.

Nine startups have been chosen to take part in the latest edition of the programme, with each selected team receiving a stipend, while the Vodafone Institute introduces them to personal mentors as well as potential business partners and investors.

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Three of the selected companies are from Africa. Kenya’s Bidhaa Sasa is a finance and last-mile distribution company offering a range of household goods that improve the quality of life of rural families, Uganda’s Zoora is a digital platform for members of Village Savings and Loan Associations to access both training, a safe record keeping tool and access to agricultural inputs, and Rwanda’s Hive Online – also active in Sweden and Denmark – is a distributed community finance platform that enables financially excluded entrepreneurs to gain access to credit and new markets. The other selected startups are from Brazil, Chile, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United Kingdom (UK).

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry